1. Technical Field
Example embodiments of the present invention relate to a mother panel and a method of manufacturing a display panel using the mother panel. More particularly, example embodiments of the present invention relate to a vertical alignment mode mother panel, and a method of manufacturing a display panel, wherein liquid crystal molecules are aligned by an exposure process exposing the mother panel.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In a conventional liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus, in order to display an image, optical transmittance of liquid crystal molecules is controlled by an electric field. The LCD apparatus may be classified as a vertical electric field type and a horizontal electric field type according to the direction of an electric field for arranging the liquid crystal molecules.
The vertical electric field type LCD apparatus uses a vertical electric field generated between a pixel electrode and a common electrode facing each other to arrange the liquid crystal molecules in a vertical alignment (VA) mode. The LCD apparatus operated in the VA mode has a wide viewing angle of up to about 160 degrees.
The response time of liquid crystal molecules is the rearranging time of the liquid crystal molecules in response to an electric field applied to the LCD apparatus. In an LCD apparatus controlling liquid crystal molecules through a pixel electrode having micro-slits, the liquid crystal molecules are controlled by a fringe field formed by the micro-slits. There is a need to improve the response time of liquid crystal molecules adjacent to an alignment layer.
In order to improve the response time in the VA mode, a photosensitive curing agent or reactive mesogen (RM) is mixed with a liquid crystal layer and cured, so that the liquid crystal molecules adjacent to the alignment layer are pre-aligned in a horizontal direction.
In the above-mentioned photocuring process, an electric field is applied to the liquid crystal molecules to align the liquid crystal molecules in the horizontal direction while the liquid crystal molecules are exposed to light for curing the photosensitive curing agent. Accordingly, a plurality of signal lines for applying the electric field is disposed in a peripheral region of a display panel in a mother panel. A mother panel is a panel before being divided into a plurality of display panels. However, the conventional structure of the signal lines in the peripheral region may deteriorate processing efficiency.